Showing results by narrator "Robert Fass" in All Categories

In a small town in the American South, it is night in the middle of the 20th century. Carter, a high-school teacher and football coach in the newly desegregated schools, is awaiting news of two of his students who have been in a serious altercation. Outside the building where Carter has kept his vigil, a crowd of townspeople have also gathered to keep watch. Carter must choose how much he wants to participate in the spectacle and how much he can afford to keep his distance.

"I glanced out the window as my train pulled into the station and saw the girl who killed my son." So begins Josh Rolnick's powerful debut collection of eight stories, which utilizes a richly focused narrative style accenting the unavoidable tragedies of life while revealing the grace and dignity with which people learn to deal with them. The stories - four set in New Jersey and four in New York - span the wide geographic tapestry of the area and demonstrate the interconnectedness of both the neighboring states and the residents who inhabit them.

The first of Plimpton's remarkable forays into participatory journalism, Out of My League chronicles with wit, charm, and grace what happens when a self-professed amateur has the chance to answer every fan's question: could he strike out a major league star? Plimpton's inspired idea - to get on the mound and pitch a few innings to the All-Stars of the American and National Leagues - begins as a fun-filled stunt and comes to a deeply hellish, nearly humiliating end.

Carlos Eire's story of a boyhood uprooted by the Cuban Revolution quickly lures us in, as eleven-year-old Carlos and his older brother Tony touch down in the sun-dappled Miami of 1962 - a place of daunting abundance where his old Cuban self must die to make way for a new, American self waiting to be born. In this enchanting new work, narrated in Eire's inimitable and lyrical voice, young Carlos adjusts to life in his new country.

In the works for more than twenty years, Interstate 69 has been both eagerly anticipated as an economic godsend and the center of a firestorm of protests by local environmentalists, farmers, ranchers, anarchists, and others who question both the wisdom of building more highways and the merits of globalization. Part history, part travelogue, Interstate 69 chronicles the last great highway project in America, introducing the people who have worked tirelessly to build it or stop it from being built, and the many places it would change forever.

When Tess Devlin runs into her ex-husband, Nick, on a Boston sidewalk, she's furious at him for pretending he doesn't know her. She calls his cell to have it out with him only to discover that he's in New Hampshire with his current girlfriend. But if Nick's in New Hampshire...who did she encounter on the street?

During the harshest year of the Great Depression, Lorena Hickok, a top woman news reporter of the day and intimate friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, was hired by FDR’s right-hand man Harry Hopkins to embark upon a grueling journey to the hardest-hit areas of the country to report back on the degree of devastation. Distinguished historian Michael Golay draws on a trove of original sources - including the moving, remarkably intimate, almost daily letters between Hickok and Eleanor Roosevelt - as he re-creates that extraordinary journey.

Who are you, Malone? Just a little while ago you were a cop. That was before the two punks and their girl hit town. That was before they boosted a payroll and shot down a man and took your nine-year-old daughter as insurance to cover their getaway. Now you’re just a man. Scared. Not for yourself - that would be easy. But for your child, the only thing in the world you love enough to make you play ball with the kind of scum you’ve hated all your life.

Roger Cortland came to the Orbital Complex to continue his life's work in virtual reality. Marissa Correa came to work with Cortland, and to observe this Utopian society up close. Jhana Meniskos came to work in "Orbital Park", the station's biodiversity preserve. But no Utopia is safe-from corruption, from sabotage, from corporate greed. And when this perfect world begins to unravel - attacked from Earth and from within - all three will have to fight to protect their work and their lives.

Two never before published novellas from some of our very best crime writers, compiled and edited by Ed McBain.

There's something wrong next door. At least that's what neighbors Howie Jeffries and Emily Phane both think. Since his daughter and wife moved out, Howie has been alone. Emily couldn't be more different: she's irreverent, outgoing, and seemingly well adjusted.

A piercing and compassionate debut novel about how the new generations atone for the sins of the old in small-town America.

Their names were Bob Palmer, Gordy Cox, Tim McCoy, and Chuck Vervalin, and in 1941, when they joined the Navy, they were not trying to prove their patriotism - they were just looking for a job that would provide "three hots and a cot". But on April 22, 1943, the war took a terrible turn for them. Their submarine, the USS Grenadier, was torpedoed. Listed as lost in action and given up for dead, all four had in fact miraculously escaped, only to be captured by the Japanese.

The author of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle", Washington Irving perfected the American short story. His stories were written in an approachable tone and intended to entertain rather than enlighten. Originally published in 1819, "The Spectre Bridegroom" is a ghost story about a baron and his daughter in historic Germany. The tale revolves around the daughter’s betrothal to Count Van Altenburg and the strange occurrences that lead up to the wedding. One of the few Irving stories set outside of the United States, "The Spectre Bridegroom" is often seen as a commentary on the differences between American and European society.

All his life, Giovanni Bernini has possessed an uncanny gift: He can imitate anyone he meets. Honed by his mother at a young age, the talent catapults him from small-town obscurity to stardom. As Giovanni describes it, "No one's disguise is perfect. There is in every person, no matter how graceful, a seam, a thread curling out of them... When pulled by the right hands, it will unravel the person entire."

In Duplicity, the newest thriller from former speaker of the House and best-selling author Newt Gingrich, such an invisible hand overseeing havoc worldwide plays a major role. Gingrich has teamed with former Washington Post reporter and best-selling author Pete Earley to create a highly plausible mix of domestic and global action in this ripped-from-the-headlines thriller.

On a rocky, beautiful hilltop stands Ma'aleh Hermesh C, a fledgling community flying under the radar. According to the government it doesn't exist; according to the military it must be defended. On this contested land, Othniel Assis - under the wary gaze of the neighboring Palestinian village - installs his ever-expanding family. As Othniel manipulates government agencies, more settlers arrive and the outpost takes root. One of the settlement's residents is Gabi Kupper.

In this breathtakingly imaginative audiobook - now appearing in audio for the first time - we enter the mind of an unnamed artist of prodigious talent and intelligence who is determined to correct the world's wrongs via a direct confrontation with the Almighty, no matter what the consequences. A spellbinding tale told by a memorably unreliable narrator, It Happened in Boston? places you inside a vivid world that brilliantly and surprisingly interweaves art, genius, love, madness, betrayal, God - and murder.

In "The Man Who Fought Roland LaStarza" a woman's world is upended when she learns the brutal truth about a family friend's death--and what her father is capable of. Meanwhile, a businessman desperate to find his missing two-year-old grandson in "Suicide Watch" must determine whether the horrifying tale his junkie son tells him about the boy's whereabouts is a confession or a sick test. In "Valentine, July Heat Wave" a man prepares a gruesome surprise for the wife determined to leave him.

Lincoln's Citadel is a fresh, absorbing narrative history of Lincoln’s leadership in Civil War Washington. Here is the vivid story of how the Lincoln administration met the immense challenges the war posed to the city, transforming a vulnerable capital into a bastion for the Union.